Social Media Tag

YouTuber Turns Into Hollywood Director

The Internet and social media has started a new boom of celebrities.  It used to be that if you wanted to act or sing, you had to go to audition after audition.  If that didn’t work, it was your connections through the industry that got you in.  Today, you don’t even have to leave your home to get fame.  We’ve seen it over and over again.  Both Sean Kingston & Lily Allen gained their fame through posting their music on MySpace.  YouTube has also been the birth of celebrities.  We’ve seen the success of Fred, who just wrapped up filming his first motion picture over the weekend, while bloggers like iJustine continue to have millions of followers.

As of early this morning, thanks to the power of YouTube there is a new celebrity in town.  His name is Fede Alvarez and you likely won’t see his face everywhere.  Alvarez, who is from Uraguay, likes to make videos behind the scenes.  Just last month, Alvarez posted a 4 minute movie, which he had shot on a $300 budget.  Less than 4 days after publishing the video online, Alvarez says he started getting offers from Hollywood to film and direct a similar sci-fi thriller. (more…)

This Week In Social Media: Dec 18, 2009

From an army taking over Twitter to an 80 year old grandma who loves to tweet, this is what happened this week in the world of social media and on the world wide web. (more…)

Iranian Cyber Army Hacks Into Twitter

Overnight, Twitter users who wanted to update their statuses saw a message from the so called “Iranian Cyber Army.”  The group hacked into Twitter and left a picture of the Iranian flag along with this message for all to see:

U.S.A. Think They Controlling And Managing Internet By Their Access, But They Don’t, We Control And Manage Internet By Our Power, So Do Not Try To Stimulation Iranian Peoples TO

………..

NOW WHICH COUNTRY IN EMBARGO LIST? IRAN? USA?
WE PUSH THEM IN EMBARGO LIST ; )
Take Care. (more…)

Senior Citizens Use Social Media & Web Too

Have you ever heard someone say they are too old to figure out how to use a computer?  As a 22 year old, I find it hard to imagine life without a computer, since I’ve always had one in the house since about 3rd or 4th grade.  I know we were one of the last families in the neighborhood to get one.  My brother, sister and me were definitely brought up in a different age than my parents.  While my mom became accepting to the computer, my dad says, “computers are the end of the word as we know it!”  Asking my dad to find the power button on a computer is impossible, which is why I was flabbergasted to learn that my 15 year old brother taught him how to text.

While my dad is more than a decade and a half away from becoming a senior citizen, a new survey recently showed that seniors enjoy using the internet, and some of their favorite sites include Facebook and YouTube.  Nielsen estimates that today nearly 17.5 million seniors are active on the Internet, which is up from 2004, when it was estimated only 11.3 million seniors used the internet. (more…)

The Most Tweeted Words of 2009

This has been quite the year for Twitter.  Becoming the most popular word of the year, according to the Global Language Monitor, and even a source for breaking news, Twitter is just getting started.  

It’s hard to imagine Twitter without a checking out the current trending topics, but the feature was just released in April along with the Twitter search tool, allowing you to type a certain word or phrase and tweets with those keywords will appear.  Using the trending topics has become a great way to stay up-to-date in pop culture, and news headlines from around the world.  In fact, many Twitter users found out that Michael Jackson had died about 45 minutes before those watching the developments on television.  Twitter was also great to watch during the American Idol finale, as it was the first time American Idol winner, Kris Allen, took the top spot beating out Adam Lambert, who was the number one trending topic every week until that night.  As we near 2010, Twitter has decided to take a look at some of the most interesting trending topics of the year.  (more…)

Facebook Wants You To Use Twitter

Yes, I know it looks like something that would never happen, but since the launch of Facebook’s URL shortening service yesterday, TechCrunch confirmed that Facebook will now have the ability to send your status updates from the site onto Twitter.  Surprisingly, this will be an option directly on your Facebook status bar, and you will not need a Facebook app to use this.  A similar feature currently exists on Fan Pages, but will now be available to all profiles. (more…)

Twitter Contributors To Help Businesses

As we all know, companies world-wide are taking advantage of Twitter, from major corporations like Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, and Amazon to smaller companies such as iePlexus.  Late Monday, Twitter’s Anamitra Banerji wrote in a blog post that some new features will soon be coming to Twitter to help benefit businesses.  

There has been much talk about having companies pay for a business account within the next year and that still seems very likely.  Companies with a business account would receive a badge, much like celebrities have, verifying it’s the official account.  However, as of right now Twitter is only releasing plans for one of their features for business accounts.  The new feature is known as the “Contributors”.  This will mostly be beneficial to companies whom have multiple people updating their Twitter accounts.  This helps make online businesses seem a little more personal by allowing users to engage more in conversations. (more…)

This Week In Social Media: Dec. 11, 2009

This Week In Social Media: December 11, 2009 from iePlexus on Vimeo.

From Google’s new search features, to AOL relaunching their site, Kyle Aevermann from iePlexus takes a look at some of the stories that made headlines this week in the world of social media and on the world wide web. (more…)

Jet Set Away, Thanks To Social Media

By far, one of my favorite things about social media is the amount of free things you can get.  For example, over the summer, I was tweeting back and forth with FOX Chicago news anchor Nancy Loo.  She had mentioned that one of her co-anchors had never had popcorn from Garrett Popcorn, a famous Chicago popcorn eatery.  I had mentioned that I had never had it either and within a matter of minutes I received a Twitter response from Garrett Popcorn inviting me to one of their many stores to try some of their popcorn.  Needless to say, I eventually made my way to one of their shops for some delicious free popcorn.  Ahh, the power of Twitter.

I’ve told you about a few social media contests in the past few months.  Back in October, I shared a contest with you where the Colorado tourism board decided to offer a trip to Colorado for people who had never seen snow in the Snow at First Sight contest.  While an official winner has yet to be determined, the contest is designed around social media.  Users were asked to create a video and promote their video and the contest through Facebook & Twitter.  28 people are currently competing for the trip.  Voting is currently taking place and will soon close as 10 semi-finalist are chosen for a chance to win a dream trip and share their experience through social media.  (more…)

17% of Facebook Users Use Facebook Connect

Facebook seems to have yet another statistic which will amaze us once again.  Last week on December 4, Facebook’s feature, Facebook Connect celebrated its one year anniversary since joining the site.  Late Wednesday, the company announced some pretty amazing statistics.

“Today, we are celebrating the first anniversary of Facebook Connect from the LeWeb conference in France,” said Ethan Beard, director of the Facebook Developer Network. “Facebook Connect is now available on more than 80,000 websites, and more than 60 million people are using the service to connect with their friends everywhere.” (more…)